When it’s so hot your pores are like a swimming pool, you can barely sleep and stepping outside feels like you’ve been hit in the face with a sauna, it’s time for trifle.
The light-as-air dessert is served cold and combines sponge cake, custard, fruit, whipped cream and a hit of jam (or booze) for the perfect summer dessert.
But once lactose and gluten intolerance hit, I figured my trifle days were over.
But then I learned that coconut cream could be whipped into something that could pass for whipped cream and then lightened up with thick sweetened coconut yogurt. Thanks to Alice Medrich, I already knew how to make a stellar dairy-free custard. And thanks to glutenfreegoddess, I knew how to make a gluten-free sponge.
So I was back in business.
I started with this recipe, but ended with this one:
Amie’s Reinvented Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Trifle
serves 10-ish
Sponge Cake:
5 eggs
3 tbsp earth balance spread (or butter or coconut oil)
2 tsp almond or vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups gluten-free all-purpose baking flour (Robin Hood has a new product out, but I prefer Bobs Red Mill. Or make your own)
2/3 cup coconut sugar (or cane sugar)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Vanilla Custard:
6 tbsp sugar
8 tsp gluten-free flour blend (same as above)
8 tsp cornstarch
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 cups almond milk
1 1/2 tsp almond or vanilla extract
Whipped Cream Filling:
1/2 cup coconut cream (or 2 cans coconut milk, placed in the fridge for an hour, opened without shaking, and cream layer on top scraped off)
1 cup coconut yogurt (or other thick yogurt, preferably plain, almond, or vanilla, and sweetened with 3 tbsp coconut sugar to taste if purchased unsweetened)
1 tsp almond or vanilla extract
1/2 cup strawberry jelly, or for a simpler version, 1 1/2 cups strawberries blended for 3 minutes with 2 tbsp coconut sugar and 1/4 tsp lemon juice (adjust sugar and lemon to taste)
1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced
1/4 cup blueberries
Directions:
To prepare sponge cake, preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large rimmed cookie tray or baking sheet with parchment paper. Coat the paper and pan sides with earth balance or oil.
Have eggs at room temperature.
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, swirling occasionally, until the white flecks of milk solids in the bottom of the pan start to turn golden brown, 4 to 8 minutes (this was in the original recipe and it didn’t happen for me, but I just let it cook for about 10 minutes and then took it off the heat). Scrape into a medium bowl. Let cool to room temperature, then stir in 2 teaspoons almond extract. Set aside.
Meanwhile, measure 1 1/4 cups gluten-free flour into a medium bowl.
Crack eggs into large mixing bowl. Add 2/3 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt and beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until tripled in volume and very pale light yellow, 5 to 15 minutes (depending on the strength of your mixer). To test if it’s beaten well enough, lift the beater from the batter: as the batter falls off the beater into the bowl, it should mound for a moment on the surface. Mine didn’t mound…so after about 15 minutes I shrugged and moved on. My sponge just wasn’t as light and airy, but with all that custard and cream, nobody complained.
Fold the flour into the egg mixture until just incorporated. Gently fold about 1 cup of the batter into the reserved butter. Then gently fold the butter mixture into the bowl of batter with a whisk until just incorporated, being careful not to overmix. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared baking sheet.
Bake 8-12 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool in the pan on a large wire rack for 10 minutes. Gently remove cake from pan, flip upside onto a clean surface or cooling rack, and remove parchment.
To make the custard, all you do for this recipe is thicken milk and eggs on the stove. The only way to mess it up is to let the eggs scramble, so make sure you whisk while you pour the hot milk over the eggs.
Combine the sugar, flour, and cornstarch in a large bowl. Add all the eggs and yolks and beat them for 1-2 minutes. They should be thick and almost white.
Scald the milk in a medium saucepan (until the edges just start to bubble a little. It shouldn’t boil) and pour it slowly over the egg mixture in a thin stream like olive oil, whisking constantly until all the milk is added. I kept beating with the handheld mixer here because I didn’t have enough hands to whisk and pour at the same time. I foresaw the eggs tumbling to the floor that way (you can put a kitchen towel under the bowl to help keep it from moving around of its own accord). The liquid ended up a bit frothy, though, so you kind of need to beat the froth down into the liquid afterward, or you’ll have a hard time telling when the mixture has thickened in the next step.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk, reaching all over the bottom and sides of pan, until the mixture thickens a lot. When you think it’s had enough, keep cooking and whisking an extra 30-45 seconds. Then scrape your custard into a clean bowl and whisk in the vanilla. Cool. Cover. Refrigerate.
To make the whipped cream layer, whisk or beat coconut cream until smooth. Whisk in yogurt and extract.
To assemble trifle, cut the sponge cake into 1-inch cubes. Spread about 1/3 of the custard in the bottom of a trifle dish (or any see-through dish). Top with about 1/3 of the cake cubes followed by 1/3 or the jam or strawberry purée, and a single layer of strawberry slices. Line the sides of the dish with vertically-placed slices of strawberries (the prettiest ones). Now pour in 1/3 of the cream and use a spatula to even out the top. Repeat the layering two more times (it’s fine to the scrape the custard a little into the cream to even it out. Top the custard with a couple of leftover strawberry slices. Toss on some blueberries or more strawberry slices to cover any gaps in the cream. Sprigs of mint would be pretty too, but completely unnecessary when there’s already this much deliciousness involved.
Take a picture.
Take a spoon.
Dive in.
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